According to Exodus 17, what place name was given after Moses brought water from a rock?
Answer
Massah and Meribah
Answer
Massah and Meribah
According to Exodus 17, the place was called Massah and Meribah after Moses brought water from a rock.
The Israelites were camping at Rephidim and complained that they had no water. God instructed Moses to strike the rock with his staff, and water came out for the people to drink. Moses named the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites tested the Lord and quarreled there.
The two names are commonly translated with ideas such as testing and quarreling or dispute. Exodus uses them together for this wilderness episode. A separate account in Numbers also concerns water from a rock at Kadesh and is associated with Meribah, which can cause confusion between the passages.
The question’s setting is therefore important: Exodus 17 places this event at Rephidim, while Numbers describes another incident later in the journey. The combined name in Exodus is Massah and Meribah.
Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026